cyprus: nicosia/lefkosa

I took advantage of a four day weekend to move a little closer to my goal of visiting every country in Europe. During this weekend I was able to take a quick look at various parts of Cyprus. It's a tiny island country, and I thought 4 days would be enough to see a good portion of it, but I was totally wrong. It is small, but it has a mighty history, and has a good amount of natural beauty.

I had a direct flight from Kyiv to a city called Larnaca, which is not the capital of the country. (I don't think there is an airport in the capital.) It's not hard to get to Nicosia, but it isn't the cheapest either. My flight landed in Larnaca, on the southern coast of the island nation.

It turned out I had just barely missed the shuttle bus to Nicosia. I had to wait around another 45 minutes or so. The airport had free wifi though...

The shuttle bus to the capital city of Nicosia doesn't actually take you anywhere close to where anyone would want to go. It stops on the outskirts of the city, requiring just about everyone to hop in one of the many taxis waiting at the bus station.

Since my hotel turned out to be in the middle of a pedestrian area, the cab dropped me off nearby. As I was walking through these streets I started to get a bit worried that I was lost, so I asked a few people at a cafe.

They gave me directions (I was still going the right way,) and also asked me to sit and relax for a few minutes. They were nice enough, so I took a seat. It turned out one of the men (all three were older,) owned the restaurant, and the other two were his lawyer friends. It was fun to chat with them for a while, and ask the random questions I always have. They taught me a little about the history of the island, which I definitely appreciated.

From there it was easy to find and check into my hotel. As it was almost midnight by that point, I was exhausted, and fell asleep immediately.

Nicosia is a split city. As far as I know, it is one of just a few in the world where two governments control the city. In this case it is peaceful, and the split has been in place for years. I've heard somewhere that the people of the island want to unite, but who knows what will happen. The two sides are referred to as Greek Cyprus and Turkish Cyprus, or Cyprus and Turkish controlled Northern Cyprus. The southern side is a sovereign country, and is not controlled by Greece at all, though they share a language. The southern side uses the euro as currency, the northern side uses the Turkish lira.

Both currencies can be used in the north, but only euros are used in the south. Take a look online if you want more details about the split, as I would rather describe what I did and saw, rather than attempt to make simple something that is actually really complicated.

Since I'd read online a number of different descriptions about the 'border' between the two sides, I didn't know how long it would take to 'cross,' so I headed there first to make sure I had plenty of time. To get to the 'border post' I walked along Ledra street, which could've been a street anywhere in Europe. Cafes and shops and everything else that might be needed by tourists line the street.

When I got to the border I handed my passport to the first window, which was manned by the Cypriot (Greek side,) police. They looked me up in the computer to make sure I'd entered legally, then handed back my passport. I walked through no mans land, to another set of windows. This set was manned by Turkish customs officials. They looked at my passport and handed it back. I was really hoping that one or the other side would stamp my passport, but that didn't happen. The reason for this is that neither side considers it an official border crossing. (Though from what I understand, if an American were to enter the country by coming from mainland Turkey, they would not be able to cross into the southern side of Cyprus, as this is not an official entry point to the country, and therefore they wouldn't be legal.)

As soon as I was out of the border area I got a bit lost. As with any city center that has been around for a long time, nothing goes in a straight line. There were signs pointing in various directions, but I just wandered until I found something interesting to see.

The first 'sight' for me was an old church. When I walked up to the door I discovered there was a whirling dervish performance going on inside, and I wasn't in the mood to pay an entrance fee for something that had already started. I don't know if this is ever used as a church anymore. I loved the carving over the door, it was quite intricate.

Right next to the church was a big mosque. Selimiye Mosque actually began it's life as a cathedral, but sometime after Turkey started to govern the north side of the island it was turned into a mosque. Or maybe the change happened even earlier, I don't know. Either way, it still looks like a church from the outside.

Since it is a mosque, that means everyone has to take off their shoes; thankfully there were shelves for all the shoes. Even though I was wearing a skirt that went almost to my knees and a tshirt, I was told that I needed to cover up. Fortunately I was able to borrow a wraparound skirt to cover my knees. I already had a headscarf to use.

I don't have a problem with being respectful in any country or building, but it annoyed me when the standard is not equal. When I was inside, I noticed quite a few men wearing shorts that did not cover their knees, even a few in tank tops. NOT FAIR.

The mosque itself was lovely. The ceilings were high, there was carpet all the way through, and the stained glass let in beautiful light. There was a women's prayer area behind a door, but it was dark and I didn't want to bother the lady in there who was clearly praying. I'm glad I was able to go through the entire mosque, as some won't let a women into the main area no matter what.

After the mosque I wandered through the twisty streets and eventually made it to my second major sight, known as Buyuk Han. It was originally built as an inn, but has long since been turned into an area with shops and cafes for tourists. It is pretty though, and I would've liked it better if not for the displays of souvenirs everywhere I looked.

That being said, I bought a few postcards, and when photos on other postcards caught my eye I was able to ask the shop owner about another town on the island. He told me where it was, and how to get there using local transport, yay!

Since I like to know locations of bus stops and such, I decided to walk to the place I could find the public transport, which took me through more of the north side of the city. In Turkish, the north side of the city is called Lefkosa.

The first part of this walk took me to a memorial column, called the Venetian column. Not terribly interesting, but it was fun to watch a kid chase the birds around the base of the column.

From there I walked straight up the street to one of the former gates of the old city. (The old city – which used to be a single city – was walled all the way around. Much of the walls still stand, though some are in ruins.)

The town I wanted to go to was called Girne, (the Turkish name is Girne, the Greek name is Kyrenia,) and this was the Girne gate, how convenient. It didn't take me long to find where I would catch the local transport, which relieved me.

Since I was already there, I decided to keep walking. I didn't see anything of interest after walking for a while, and it was hot. Hot and sunny with very little shade. I stopped into numerous mini markets until I found something to drink, thank goodness someone finally had water, not a sugary liquid. 

I turned around and walked all the way back toward the crossing area. On the way I ended up stopping for what I thought was a snack at a cafe. It turned out to be a full meal, which I didn't really need or want, but it was good. Another bottle of water later and I felt human again.

On the way back I also passed a super cute bookstore. I wish I'd had room in my pack to buy a book, just because it was so pretty inside the store.

After crossing the 'border' again I found a cafe with fruit smoothie type options, and I couldn't resist. I ended up ordering something with colorful layers, yum. Then I went back to my hotel for 90 minutes to cool down.

After a while I went out again, because it was still light outside and there is always something more to see. I followed one of the old city walls until I came to a monument, called Liberty monument. No one else was around, which surprised me; I guess I expect anything to do with liberty/freedom/independence to have people hanging around. I took my photos and moved on.

Across the street was what remains of an old aqueduct, so I took photos of that too. At that point I had just one more sight in mind, another of the old city gates. I almost missed this one, as it is mostly covered up (by another building,) from the outside and top, and wasn't open when I walked by. Nothing exciting.

Since I wanted to keep walking, I kept going in whateva direction looked interesting. At one point I bumped up on the border between the two sides of the city, this area was fenced off and closed. It was not a solid fence, so I was able to see the other side, and noticed a couple unesco observation shacks.

I imagine when relations between Cyprus and Greece aren't so good, there are people in these shacks, manking sure the no mans land area stays quiet. It didn't look as if that situation has happened anytime recently.

I wound through more of the old city streets, quite a few of which had abandoned homes. I peeked into everything I could, because I find this sort of building fascinating. One of the buildings reminded me a lot of what I'd seen on my visits to the town of Pripyat in Ukraine, which is where Chornobyl is located.

I found more churches, only one of which was open. Everything I saw was Greek Catholic, which makes me think of a combination of Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholic.

At one point I stumbled into a small street food fest. Even though I didn't need it, I ended up buying a vegan burrito. Not bad.

I went back to the hotel for another hour or so, then went out for dinner. Since the food I'd tasted the night before at the old man's restaurant had been good, I decided to go back again for a full meal. It was good, and I was remembered. Yay.

The next day I spent in the city of Pafos, returning to Nicosia for dinner.

The following morning I was up in time to catch a bus/mini van to Girne. When I returned to Nicosia I sped through the border crossing, and back to my hotel. I'd already packed up my stuff in the morning, but no one had been at the front desk so I hadn't checked out. This worked out for me, as I was able to grab my bag and go right back out of the hotel.

I dropped my key at the (now manned) front desk, then walked over to the bus station. I hadn't bought tickets ahead of time, and I noticed a growing crowd of people who clearly wanted the same bus I did. Thankfully I've lived and spent time in plenty of places where people don't always respect a queue. I looked for a queue, but didn't see one, so I slowly wound my way close to the door of the bus, which made sure I'd have a seat.

The bus left a few minutes late, and over an hour later I was in Larnaca.